Bulldogs advance to semifinals following 62-14 win over Sanford

A dominating performance in quarterfinals action gives the Haxtun Bulldogs a final four appearance in the 8-man State championships. Haxtun took a commanding 62-14 win over Sanford at home on Saturday to advance one step closer in the quest for back-to-back undefeated title seasons.

The win over Sanford pits the Bulldogs in a semifinals contest with Simla this weekend.

The first quarter opened with a quick Bulldog touchdown with a 64-yard run from quarterback Ryland Wolff. Haxtun's offense kept things moving and three minutes later the Bulldogs were on the board again, this time with an 86-yard punt return from senior Michael Gerk. Haxtun put 34 unanswered points on the board in the first quarter alone and another 12 in the second put the Bulldogs on top 46-8 at half time.

Wolff opened the third quarter just as he did the first, this time giving Haxtun eight points on the board with a 15-yard rushing touchdown. The third quarter TD gave the Bulldogs a 40-point advantage forcing a running clock for the remainder of the game. The Bulldogs added another touchdown in the fourth and final quarter by means of a Wolff pass to senior Maclin Tempel for a final 62-14 at Adam Wernsman Field last weekend.

"We came out fast, the defense was flying to the ball and making plays," Head Coach JD Stone said of his team's performance on the field Saturday. "The offense and specials just kept making plays. We talk every week that we need to play our best ball of the season that week and that's no different this week."

Haxtun completed a total of 47 plays against Sanford on Saturday, including 21 first downs. According to MaxPreps, the Bulldogs played a perfect game with no penalties.

Under center, Wolff completed nine of 10 passes as quarterback. He racked up 205 yards in the air along with three touchdowns. Wolff averaged 22.8 yards per pass. Senior Kyle Fryrear caught three passes off Wolff's arm for a total of 96 yards and two touchdowns. Gerk also tallied three catches for a total of 89 yards. Keegan Colglazier had one catch for 21 yards followed by Tempel with one touchdown in the air and seven yards.

The Bulldog rushing game netted 299 yards on the ground against Sanford, led by Gerk with 132 yards from 12 carries and two touchdowns. Wolff carried the ball eight times for 113 yards and two touchdowns. Kailin Kelley had one rushing touchdown on the day while also netting 34 yards on the ground.

Total, the Bulldog offense registered 504 yards on the day.

Defensively, the Bulldogs dominated Sanford's offense while netting 83 total tackles. Three Haxtun defenders registered double-digits in the tackles department including Gerk, Colglazier and Wolff, each racking up 10 total tackles. Gerk earned his evenly, five solo and five assisted; Colglazier had two solo and eight assisted tackles; and Wolff went five and five for his 10.

Fryrear, Josh Wright, Tempel and Kelley each registered seven total tackles followed by Kaiden Schelling with five.

This far in the season, Stone said he and his coaching staff are working to keep their team healthy and focused on the end goal. "As the season wears on the guys, we try to rest the guys early in the week, we do a lot of yoga, classroom time, film and the team Doc comes in and works with the guys," he said. "Later in the week we get after it and work on a lot of situational stuff."

Saturday's win over Sanford sends Haxtun to the semifinals for a match up with Simla at home this week. Haxtun entered the State playoff bracket as the number one team, Simla came in at number four. Other teams remaining on the other side of the bracket include number three ranked Mancos and number two seeded Dove Creek.

Something will snap on Saturday, Nov. 19 when Haxtun and Simla go head to head as both teams enter with perfect 11-0 records. In route to the semifinals, Simla took down Hayden in round one and recently beat Holly 31-22 for the Cubs final four appearance. Game time at Adam Wernsman Field on Saturday is slated for 1 p.m.

"Simla has a combo of size and speed, we are trying to prep for ways to combat that," Stone said. "Defensively we have some very smart guys who study film so they can trigger fast and attack teams offenses. On offense we want it to be hard for the teams we are playing to prep for us; our read, RPO and tempo is hard for opponents to mimic in practice, so when they see us on the field, we can catch them off guard."